Romance Was Born

Fresh off the jet from my 2nd visit to the 2012 Salone Internazionale del Mobile in Milan (always brilliant!) and straight into the craziness that is Sydney Fashion Week.

Creative duo Anna and Luke of Romance Was Born asked me to join forces with them for their show – a hotly anticipated collaboration with Marvel Comics that saw them design some amazing garments. We decided a huge graphic pop-up set was in order – ZAP!

The production team certainly had a challenge on their hands. I created a working scale model in paper which was then blown up to runway sized proportions. The set mechanically opening at the start of the show. Pretty amazing when you think about it! Romance had been given the opening slot at 9am to kick off the whole week so the pressure was on for everyone to deliver something worthy. Strange to think that all that craziness and buildup is over in 10 minutes!
There is a short little video of the set in action + show HERE.

Backstage was brilliant! Luke and Anna had created a ‘Berserkergang’ of flame haired super mutants.
Above >> Natasha working some of her magic on the models.

One of the girls even posed up for me! I worked alongside the ultra talented stylist Cat Scardino to create some high gloss paper gauntlets and cuffs for the models to wear on the runway. Check out those crazy brilliant prints designed by Mikey and Radge!

Made heaps just in case…

The three hot catwalk shots above courtesy of Ryan Kenny for oystermag.com
Everything went off without a hitch I’m pleased to report. The grand finale below.

Here I am proud as punch on the set afterward. What a thrill!

I also designed a pop-up invite for the show below.

A massive thank you to Anna and Luke for asking me to be part of the whole shebang. Thank you also to Rachel for her tireless efforts, Mark and Cat too + Radge for tidying up my loose ends! Last but not least thank you to my mate Kasia at The AEON for letting me use some of her images for this post.